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September 15, 2010

Call for neutral touch judges

Posted by Editor on September 15, 2010 08:10 PM | 5 comments | Print | E-mail author

Sean Lineen has called for neutral touch judges
Glasgow coach Sean Lineen has called for the introduction of neutral touch judges for Magners League matches.

The call comes in the wake of Glasgow's 23-11 defeat to the Dragons at Rodney Parade where two Warriors - Tom Ryder and DTH van der Merwe - were sin-binned and two Dragons players have subsequently been cited for alleged foul play by the match commissioner.

At present referees are drawn from neutral countries, but responsibility for selecting touch judges falls to the host Union of the country in which the game is taking place.

Italian referee Carlo Damasco took charge of Sunday's match but it was the performance of the Welsh touch judges - local referees Sean Brickell and David Williams - that prompted the call from the Glasgow coach.

"The game against the Dragons was really frustrating," said Sean in the Telegraph. "I know we didn't play the ref well but were up against 17 men for the game. It's appalling.

"We need neutral touch judges. Looking back on the game, and what went on, for the integrity of the competition it needs neutral touch judges."

The Dragons wing Aled Brew has been cited for an alleged dangerous tackle while his team-mate Scott Morgan has been cited for an alleged punch.

Although the touch judges were close to the action on both occasions, neither is believed to have drawn Damasco's attention to possible offences.

The Glasgow coach stressed that he did not blame the Welsh officials for his team's defeat. "There was an awful lot of off-the-ball stuff and it was incredibly frustrating," he said."But we didn't deserve to win the game because we didn't play in the first 40 minutes, and I'm not arguing about that. But I'm not the only coach talking about neutral touch judges."

Sean told the Scotsman: "That (tackle on DTH van der Merwe] was a spear tackle. It was incredibly dangerous. There was one less obvious in the Scarlets game that resulted in a yellow card.

"With DTH's yellow card, if you look at the provocation before it, Aled Brew is holding on to DTH right beside the touch judge and not letting him go.

"DTH tried to get him off, Aled came at him and DTH reacted, then Gavin Thomas comes in and gives him a slap and who's the one that gets yellow-carded?"

Posted by osama bin Hidin on September 15, 2010 11:02 PM | Reply to this comment

Foo kmee... that video footage is a bit scary... that bloke should be banned

Posted by steve on September 16, 2010 09:08 AM | Reply to this comment

Yeah - like I said on Sunday night - definitely a spear tackle - and Glasgow definitely suffering from very poor officiating. It was the same last year - same every year - but last year we had a strong enough team that we could win despite the barmy decisions of the officials and the seemingly willful ignorance of the touch judges to obvious forward passes, obstructions, high tackles etc. The Magners cant be taken seriously as a league until this is sorted out.

Posted by liviwarrior on September 16, 2010 12:07 PM | Reply to this comment

What a shocker of a tackle! When I saw it on TV at the time it looked bad but seeing these clips shows just how blatant and deliberate it was. The outcome could have been so much worse. There is no place in rugby for tackles like these. Why the touch judges did not flag it, I dont know - perhaps they need to visit their sponsors (Specsavers).

Posted by Hugues on September 17, 2010 12:40 AM | Reply to this comment

What a disgrace, from BBC web site,
"Newport Gwent Dragons Aled Brew and Scott Morgan have been cleared over incidents they were cited for in Sunday's win over Glasgow."


Posted by gumby on September 17, 2010 09:40 AM | Reply to this comment

A cowardly decision from the WRU disciplnary panel. Just as cowardly as the Dragons player who was doing the punching while his clubmate held the recipient of the blows.

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